Are you a bride forced to reschedule and replan because your wedding has been postponed? You are not alone. Spring is a huge season for weddings and replanning is not easy for you, the venues, or your vendors.
While most of our brides were able to reschedule, some are trying to get deposits back, some decided to get married at home with a few family members present, others are still in limbo whether to reschedule or not.
If you need help or advice, this is for you! We reached out to some of our brides going through the replanning and asked what they did and how they feel about it, and we asked our Shannon how she is feeling not knowing if she has to reschedule yet or not.
First, we asked our bride Hope. Her original wedding date was 5/8/2020 at Star Barn. Her new date is 5/8/2021. Read her advice:
Dealing with the delay / Moving the date:
Get ahead of it all! At first, when we were still hopeful for our May 8, 2020 date, we emailed our vendors to let them know we were still planning on moving forward as planned and would let them know about Easter time if there would be any changes. As we moved in to the making changes stage we selected key vendors we did not want to lose and ran all possible dates by them.
Make sure to ask your venue for all dates, including days different than when you were originally scheduled for. If I had not asked, we would have never known that May 8, 2021 was available because it was a Saturday, which meant there would be an upcharge, so they did not mention this at first to us.
Your family and friends will all offer their opinions and thoughts on a new date and when they think will be safe. There will be a ton of articles you’ll read and all of them will leave you feeling confused. Ultimately, you and your partner need to be on the same page, make your decision, and most importantly DO NOT LOOK BACK!
As with most things in life, making the decision to move your date is the hardest part. Once we officially had everything moved over, there was a sense of relief that our day would now be free from this whole pandemic. We spent about a week going back and forth with dates in different seasons, but finally said we need to be realistic and we do not want to have to move this twice. For us, rescheduling until 2021 gave us some hope that this would be behind us at that point.
Make sure you email all of your vendors right away with your new date, print new contracts, and get yourself re-organized with new payment dates and what not.
Still do something to make your original date special! We are planning to possibly go horse back riding at our venue and get a nice take-out dinner after. Luckily for us, we have the same date, just pushed back one year. So while there is some sadness that will surround May 8, 2020, I know that one year from then this day will have a whole new feeling!
Letting guests know:
We first called our family to let them know that we had secured a new date. Many of them had been our sounding board throughout the week of debating. We also told our bridal party about the new date.
As soon as we finalized a new date, I ordered new save the dates and we had them mailed out to all of our guests.
We made sure to contact everyone who had already booked at the hotel to let them know their reservations would be transferred over to our new block.
We made a post on Facebook.
Biggest takeaways:
Everyone is going to be positive and tell you that your new day will be fantastic, but sometimes you will want to hear that it sucks – and that is okay.
Look for any and all positives. For example, we had to get two hotels for our original date. Now, we are able to reserve the whole hotel and have everyone in the same place. Small things like that will help to ease some of the pain.
Do not look to what everyone else is doing – this is your journey. We know some people who are getting married in a backyard and having a reception at a later date. We knew we wanted our family and friends with us when we got married, and it did not make sense to have such an expensive party months after being married. But that is us, some people like it that way. This is not one size fits all!
The thing I want brides and couples going through this to remember is that this is your day. If you are like us, you waited and planned for this day for quite some time. And while there is no such thing as a perfect event and day, you deserve it to be as close to perfect as you can get it. Know that when you are able to celebrate your love, with all of your friends and family, it will be even more special after this whole ordeal. I personally have struggled because pushing back our wedding means pushing back our other future plans, like having a family. But I have to trust that there is a plan bigger than the one I had made, and that it will be even better than I could have imagined. While there is a huge part of me that wants next week to come and go quickly (the week that would have been my wedding week), I have to remember to focus on the positives, remember what is most important, and look forward to our new date. The health and wellbeing of us, our family, and our friends remains our number one priority. So start the new countdown, and look forward to one hell of a party on your new day. How amazing will it feel when everyone can be safely together again?
Such great advice!
Next we asked our bride Marisa who decided to reschedule from her original wedding date 7/17/2020 at Holly Hedge. Her new date is 7/30/2021:
We went back and forth A TON and for the longest time tried to hold out hope that we could have our wedding this summer. We even changed the date from July to August, thinking it would allow some time for the circumstances to potentially improve. I think our biggest motivation at that point was that our wedding would be something joyful and a sort of silver lining during all of this that we and our loved ones could look forward to. However, the unknowns and uncertainties just kept piling up. The vendors and venue were phenomenal and accommodating (as much as they could be), but there is no way to tell what the regulations and limits could be at that time. For example, we have a guest list of 200 people…do we cut that down to 50? 75? Then how do we inform those that received save the dates that they were no longer abe to attend or what if we invite 50 then the number increases to 75 after we’ve already sent out a second round of invitations?
Read on from our Shannon whose current wedding date is 8/21 at Manufacturers Country Club…
As of today, my wedding day is 106 days away. On April 6th, I went to bed and cried my eyes out. That day it hit me, we might not have our wedding with all of our friends and family!
For consideration:
Storing Your Dress: If you have your dress, keep it stored in the bag, away from dampness and out of any direct sunlight. A seamstress or cleaner will press/steam your dress so do not worry about wrinkles.
Rescheduling Tuxes: Not a problem, no charges or fees! Let us know your new date and we will take care of the rest. Need a video call? We do those, too!
Reminder: Do not forget to reapply for you marriage license, PA licenses are valid for 60 days before you must reapply.